Rancor within the country’s soccer ruling body continues to be stoked, this time by comments from dismissed secretary-general Halim Mahfudz, who has called his dismissal illegitimate and insisted on remaining in his post.

A meeting attended on Wednesday by Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) chairman Djohar Arifin with executive committee member Mawardi Nurdin and previously expelled executive committee members La Nyalla Mattalitti, Erwin Dwi Budiawan, Roberto Rouw and Tony Apriliani decided to dismiss Halim from his position because he had been “uncooperative”, and replaced him with his deputy, Hadiyandra.

Halim, accompanied by executive committee member Bob Hippy, who was absent from Wednesday’s meeting, held a press conference in the lobby of the PSSI headquarters in Senayan on Thursday.

“With all due respect to ‘whoever’ made the decision on Wednesday, I reject the decision as it was not based on procedures,” Halim said.

He said there was no official invitation from the secretariat general about the meeting or its agenda.

He said the decision was effectively made by only two executive committee members (Djohar and Mawardi Nurdin) because the expelled committee members had not officially been reinstated.

“The reinstatement of expelled executive committee members has to take place via a congress, which has not happened yet. Therefore, they have no right to be involved in any decision-making process regarding the PSSI,” Halim said.

The Indonesian Soccer Rescue Committee (KPSI), to which the expelled executive committee members belong, has agreed to hold a congress on March 17, which is expected to end the dualism within Indonesian soccer.

Halim still considers himself secretary-general and is carrying out his job as usual, including helping to prepare the March 17 congress.

“We question the chairman’s decisions to dismiss Halim Mahfudz as secretary-general, fire Nil Maizar as the national team coach and reinstate the expelled executive committee members,” Bob Hippy said.

Separately, La Nyalla Mattalitti, the current KPSI chairman, strongly condemned Halim’s move, saying that he and the three other expelled committee members had been officially reinstated after signing a memorandum of understanding with Djohar at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur in June last year.